Most Damning Sin!!

Self-righteousness is the worst sin, the most damning sin!

Self-righteousness is utter blasphemy. God is holy. Here comes this base imposter and boasts, "And I am holy too." Is not that a ludicrous and contemptible form of blasphemy?

The heavens are not pure in God's sight. He charges His angels with folly and does you, who are defiled from head to foot with loathsome sin, dare to talk about righteousness? Righteousness, indeed! You are a mixture of dust and sin.

Self-righteousness is idolatry, for the man who imagines himself to be righteous by his own works worships himself. Practically, the object of his adoration is his own dear, delectable, excellent self. All of his confidence is in himself. All of his boasting is in himself. What is this, but idolatry in its worst form?

Self-righteousness is profanity, for it calls God a liar. The Lord declares, "there is none righteous no, not one!" (Romans 3:10) To this divine assertion, the self-righteous man claims himself to be holy, and virtually declares that God is a liar. Though God says that "by the works of the law, shall no man be justified" (Galatians 2:16) yet this man says, "By the works of the law, I shall be justified!" And so, he profanes the Word of the Most-Highest God.

The gospel regards all men as sinners and comes to them with pardon. It treats men as hopelessly lost in sin and comes to save them. If there is a man who is righteous in himself, then the gospel has nothing to say to him. Its medicines are not for those upon whom the sickness of sin has never come. "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners!" (Mark 2:17)

Jesus came to wash away sin's stains, not to flatter men into a notion of their righteousness. He came to heal the sick, not to applaud the vigorous. To such as are righteous in themselves, there is not a single syllable of promise in the entire gospel.

The world hates both Christ and Christians, because they preach that all people are Hell-deserving sinners in God's sight!

Self-righteousness is most abominable in the sight of God! He is always provoked with pride, and says, "The proud in heart are an abomination to the Lord!" "I hate pride and arrogance!" (Proverbs 21:4, 8:13)

Moreover, self-righteousness also denies the wisdom of God's salvation and is utterly opposed to it. God's plan of salvation is based on the fact that we are guilty sinners. And being guilty, He provides a sin-atoning Savior to save sinners. But His whole system of salvation is a gigantic blunder, if we are or can be righteous in and of ourselves. The man who says, "I am righteous;" virtually casts a slur upon a work which is meant to be the highest display of God's love and wisdom.

Self-righteousness most effectually bars a man from all hope of salvation. Soul-poverty and spiritual destitution alone, bring a man to Jesus to be saved.

The self-righteous man never repents. Why should he, if he has never sinned?

Those who never trust in Jesus for salvation, are always self-righteous hence they see no need for a Savior.

Jesus brings the water of life to the self-righteous man; but he is not thirsty.

Jesus brings the bread of life to him, but he is not hungry.

Jesus offers a spotless robe of righteousness to him, but he has no need for it.

Jesus offers to enrich him, but he is already wealthy.

Jesus offers to pardon him, but he is not guilty.

What does the self-righteous man need from Jesus? Nothing at all. And he will get nothing from Jesus, but the damnation which he justly deserves.

Yet in the heights and depths of the dying love of Jesus, the true Christian reads the heights and depths of his accursed sin. In the infinity of the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus, he reads the boundless blackness of his guilt; and unwilling even to lift up his eyes to Heaven, beats his bosom and says: "God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" (Luke 18:13)

Heinous sins have damned their thousands, but self-righteousness has damned its tens of thousands!

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

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The God of Contemporary Christianity!

The God of contemporary Christianity is only slightly superior to the pagan gods of ancient Greece and Rome if indeed He is not actually inferior to them, in that He is weak and helpless while they at least had some imagined power. 

Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry; for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is in itself a monstrous sin and substitutes for the true God, one made after its own likeness. Always this god will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges. 

The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts. And an idol of the mind, is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand! 

Before a Christian Church goes into a decline, there must first be a corrupting of her Scriptural thoughts of God. She simply gives a wrong answer to the question, "What is God like?" and goes downhill from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed - her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind! The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God, until it is once more worthy of Him and of her! 

[A. W. Tozer]

Psalm 50:21 ... These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

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A Deity of Their Own Making

There are many idolaters in the world, besides those who worship blocks of wood and stone. There are men who would scorn to be called idolaters, who, nevertheless, are not worshipers of the true God, but votaries of a deity of their own making. They have not made him with wood, or clay, or gold, or silver but they have fashioned him out of their own conceptions. They believe in a god such as they think God ought to be and according to the general rule and fashion now-a-days, the god whom men invent for themselves, is a being entirely devoid of justice. 

They say that the God of the Bible, who is the real, living and true God is vindictive, because He punishes all rebellion against His law; because, being at the head of all moral government, He will not allow His law to be trampled on with impunity and will by no means spare the guilty. The God who executes vengeance upon sinners, is not the God for men of the modern school. They want an easier deity, a far more lenient governor, a soft God for themselves. 

The God of Scripture never was loved by proud and carnally minded men. They set up an effeminate deity of their own, who is like themselves, who cares nothing about the evil of sin, and will simply overlook sin, and will allow sinners to go unpunished a god who does their bidding, for he quenches the fire of Hell, or renders it only a transient punishment for a few years. They set up a god who gives them license to think as they like and treat His Word as a scroll of cloth for them to cut according to their own fashion. 

The god of modern thought is not the God of the Bible, neither is he any more the true God than Baal or Ashtoreth, Jupiter or Apollo. The true God is the God who is revealed in the Scriptures and manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is known only to those to whom He sovereignly reveals Himself and the rest, by their own carnal wisdom, are blinded, so that they have not seen Him, neither known Him. 

[Charles H. Spurgeon] 

Psalm 50:21-22 ... These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

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This Little Idol!!

To affirm, as the Scriptures of truth positively do, that mankind is originally and totally depraved is but to portray it with every feature of its pristine nobleness, purity, and excellence, utterly spoiled! Mankind has become the living embodiment, the acting impersonation, the very incarnation of fallen self-love, self-love in the form of complete selfishness. 

The original center of the soul forsaken man had become a center to himself. The god he worshiped, was the deification of self. The religion he professed, was the adoration of self. The powers he cultivated, were consecrated to self. His whole existence was one act of service and devotion to self. The Divine Center abandoned, he knew no other god, acknowledged no other sufficiency, recognized no other end, than himself. 

Every faculty and thought, every affection and action were made to contribute to the cloud of incense which rose as in one dense column before this little idol, SELF! Self the first. Self the last. Self all in all!  And is it not so now? 

Self, in some shape is still the Deity of the natural man! Selfishness is still the universal sin of our nature, exhibited in one or more of its thousand modifications, its endless forms. All are in pursuit either of wealth, or ambition, or pleasure, or honor, or gratification under the 'law of selfishness'. Self is the only recognized principle and rule of action which regulates the conduct of the great majority of our depraved species. The indictment is heavy, the picture is dark, the sin is awful, we admit. But it is borne out by daily observation and frequent experience, and by the faithful, unerring Word of God: "All men seek their own!" What, we ask, is all this self-exalt, this egotism, this envy and jealousy, this attempt to supplant others in esteem, influence, and power, this prodigality and love of worldly show, this eager chase of wealth, this covetousness and stinginess, this love of ease and sloth, this niggardly dole of charity, this cruel, heartless, grinding oppression, this growing sensuality and crime? 

What, we ask, is all this, and a thousand times more but the one appalling, cancerous sin of selfishness existing in the very heart of depravity and sending its fatal poison along all the fibers of human society! 

[Octavius Winslow]

Mark 8:34 ...  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

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Do Not Let Them Become Your Idols!

Thank God for the comforts and blessings of this life, but do not let them become your idols! 

Whatever a man depends upon, whatever rules his mind, whatever governs his affections, whatever is the chief object of his delight is his god. If you worship a god of gold, you will perish as much as if you worshiped a god of mud! If you love anything better than God, you are idolaters! If there is anything you would not give up for God, it is your idol. If there is anything that you seek with greater fervor than you seek the glory of God, that is your idol. That for which you live, is your idol. 

Man is such an idolater that, if he cannot idolize anything else, he will idolize himself, and set himself up, and bow down and worship himself! Conversion means a turning from every idol. If we are, indeed, Christians, then we have broken a great many idols. We have still some more to break, and we must keep the hammer going until they are all broken! If we had no idols in children, friends, wealth, ourselves we would not need half the trials we have. Foolish idols make rods for foolish backs! 

If God sees us making idols of anything, He will either break our idols, or break us. Cast out the idols from your hearts. Let them all go. Love no one else and nothing else, as you love Him. 

[Charles H. Spurgeon] 

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Ezekiel 20:16 ..  Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.

Ezekiel 14:3 ... Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

1 John 5:21 ... Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. ❤

A Pious Farce!

"Go to Bethel and sin!" cried the prophet. Bethel was their place of worship but every time they came there, they sinned because their worship was sin. Instead of bowing before the true God and adoring Him, they bowed before idols and gave them the honor which belonged to God alone. The more devout they were, therefore, the more they dishonored the Lord. Their great zeal, as shown in their sacrifices and tithes and free-will offerings, only multiplied their sin and heaped up sorer judgment against them! Their religion was all a pious farce, and the more there was of it the more of an abomination it was unto God. God cannot be pleased with mere forms of worship and with ceremonials. 

The more we multiply these, the more do we grieve Him if our heart is not in them. We may say that we have no idols now in our churches; but are we sure of this? Do we truly worship God in our church services? When we sing the hymns, are our hearts fixed upon God? When we pray, are we really talking to God? When we confess sins, is the confession sincere? When we sit in God's house, are we truly in God's presence, breathing out our heart's love and worship to Him? If not, what or whom are we adoring, praising, worshiping? Empty religious forms, must have some idol at the heart of them! The prophet told them very plainly what was in their hearts.

"This is what you love to do!" You love this! You love to make a great display in your religion. This display of piety, is just to your taste. You like to cover up your sins with forms of worship, appearing as saints before the world, though in secret cherishing and practicing all manner of wickedness! This is God's own picture of these ancient 'worshipers'. We need to look honestly at it, to see if it is OUR picture. God looks at the heart! No external appearances are of any value, unless they are genuine expressions of what is in the heart! Pirate ships carry reputable flags, to cover their dishonorable character. Religious hypocrisy often puts at its masthead, the colors of devout saintliness. But God cannot be deceived. 

 [J. R. Miller]

Amos 4:4-6 ... Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:  And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God.  And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

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3 Idols

There are three idols that Christians find very hard to mortify, namely: the applause of the world,  the pleasures of the world, and the reproaches of the world. 

[Andrew Gray]

1 John 5:21 ... Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

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Self ...

SELF is the great idol which is the rival of God, and which divides with Him the worship of the human race. It is surprising and affecting to think how much SELF enters into almost all we do. Besides the grosser form of self-righteousness, which leads many unconverted people actually to depend upon their own doings for acceptance with God; how much of self-seeking, self-valuing, self-admiration, self-dependence,  there is in many converted ones!

How covertly do some seek their own praise in what they professedly do for God, and their fellow-creatures! How eager are they for the admiration and applause of their fellow-creatures! How much of self, yet how little suspected by themselves is seen by One who knows them better than they know themselves, at the bottom of their most splendid services, donations, and most costly sacrifices!

In how many ways does self steal away the heart from God! How subtle are its workings, how concealed its movements, yet how extensive is its influence. How SELF  perverts our motives, lowers our aims, corrupts our affections, and taints our best actions!  How much incense is burned and how many sacrifices are offered on the altar of this idol!

[John Angell James]

1 John 5:21 ... Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

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The Filthy Canaanites!

When they settled in the land of promise, Israel found evil company and delighted in it. Those whom they should have destroyed, they made their friends. Having enough faults of their own, they were yet ready to go to school to the filthy Canaanites and educate themselves still more in the arts of iniquity. It was certain that they could learn no good from men whom the Lord had condemned to utter destruction. Israel sat at the feet of accursed Canaan, and rose up proficient in every abomination.

This, too, is a grievous but common error among professors. They court worldly company and copy worldly fashions, and yet it is their calling to bear witness against these things. None can tell what evil has come to the church, because of the folly of worldly conformity!

When they settled in the land of promise, Israel found evil company and delighted in it. Those whom they should have destroyed, they made their friends. Having enough faults of their own, they were yet ready to go to school to the filthy Canaanites and educate themselves still more in the arts of iniquity. It was certain that they could learn no good from men whom the Lord had condemned to utter destruction. Israel sat at the feet of accursed Canaan, and rose up proficient in every abomination.

This, too, is a grievous but common error among professors. They court worldly company and copy worldly fashions, and yet it is their calling to bear witness against these things. None can tell what evil has come to the church, because of the folly of worldly conformity!

They were fascinated by the charms of idolatry, though it brings misery upon its votaries. A man cannot serve sin without being ensnared by it. It is like pitch, and to touch it is to be be-slimed by it. Samson laid his head in the Philistine woman's lap but before long he woke up shorn of his strength. Dalliance with sin is fatal to holy living.

They were fascinated by the charms of idolatry, though it brings misery upon its votaries. A man cannot serve sin without being ensnared by it. It is like pitch, and to touch it is to be be-slimed by it. Samson laid his head in the Philistine woman's lap but before long he woke up shorn of his strength. Dalliance with sin is fatal to holy living.

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

Psalm 106:35-36 … But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.  And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.

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Better To Stay At Home!

This command is so plain, that it requires no interpreter.  Righteousness and wickedness;  light and darkness;  Christ and the Devil;  God's temple and idols.

What do they have in common?

This is a call to godly separation. This passage gives utterance to a Divine exhortation for those belonging to Christ to hold aloof from all intimate associations with the ungodly. It expressly forbids them entering into alliances with the unconverted. It definitely prohibits the children of God walking arm-in-arm with worldlings. It is an admonition applying to every phase and department of our lives, religious, domestic, social, commercial. And never, perhaps, was there a time when it more needed pressing on Christians, than now. The days in which we are living are marked by the spirit of compromise. On every side we behold unholy mixtures, ungodly alliances, and unequal yokes. Many professing Christians appear to be trying how near to the world they may walk and yet go to Heaven!

To Israel, God said, "So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. You must obey all My regulations and be careful to keep My laws, for I, the Lord, am your God!" (Leviticus 18:3-4) And again, "Do not live by the customs of the people whom I will expel before you. It is because they do these terrible things that I detest them so much!" (Leviticus 20:23) It was for their disregard of these very prohibitions, that Israel brought down upon themselves such severe chastisements.

God's call to His people in Babylon is, "Come out of her, My people! Do not take part in her sins!" (Revelation 18:4) No one can be a whole-hearted follower of the Lord Jesus who is, in any way, "yoked" to His enemies!

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers." This applies first to our religious connections. How many Christians are members of so-called "churches," where much is going on which they know is at direct variance with the Word of God either the teaching from the pulpit, the worldly attractions used to draw the ungodly, and the worldly methods employed to finance it, or the constant receiving into its membership of those who give no evidence of having been born again. Believers in Christ who remain in such "churches" are dishonoring their Lord.

Should they answer: "Practically all the churches are the same, and were we to resign, what would we do? We must go somewhere on Sundays!" Such language would show they are putting their own interests, before the glory of Christ. It is better to stay at home and read God's Word than fellowship with that which His Word condemns!

[Arthur Pink]

2 Corinthians 6:14-16 …   Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?   And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?   And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

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A Spoiled Child

Give to a pig when it grunts, and to a child when it cries and you will have a fine pig and a spoiled child!

If you never have headaches through rebuking your children, you shall have plenty of heartaches when they grow up!

It is a common thing for a little child to be the idol of the family. Wherever that is the case, there is a rod laid up in store in that house! You cannot make idols of your children, without finding out, sooner or later, that God makes them into rods with which He will punish you for your idolatry!

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

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Proverbs 13:24 … He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Proverbs 19:18 … Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

Proverbs 22:15 … Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Proverbs 23:13 … Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

Proverbs 29:17 …  Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.❤

Survey The Idols

There are other Baals in this age, in all the various forms under which they are objects of human idolatry.  It is true that you are not called, invited or disposed to bow the knee to idols of wood, stone or metal. These, however, are not the only way in which idolatry may be practiced. Everyone has a god, and if man does not love and worship Jehovah, he will make a deity of his own image. Survey the idols which you are called upon to worship:

Among them, sustaining a high place, is the vile idol of SENSUALITY. This goddess is decked out with all that can pollute the imagination, inflame the passions, or excite the evil propensities of the heart. Before this image, multitudes of devotees of both sexes bow the knee and offer the most costly sacrifices of property, health, virtue and reputation!

Near her is the bewitching and smiling image of WORLDLY PLEASURE, with the sound of music, the song and the dance, alluring the giddy and thoughtless to its orgies; and throwing the spell of its fascinations over the imagination of multitudes who go merrily to their eternal ruin!

MAMMON, the despicable deity of wealth, is there glittering with gold, and offering riches to his eager followers as the reward of their diligent and faithful adherence. His liturgy is the cry of "Money! Money! Money!" His sacrifices are the time, the bodies, the comfort, and the souls of his worshipers!

Near this is the shrine of HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. This idol is only evil, when raised above the place of faith, piety and virtue. When thus exalted above Scripture, it is a deceiving, corrupting idol, the false goddess of a Pantheon of Vices.

Nor must we leave out the idols of FALSE RELIGION, the chief of which is Popery, the anti-Christ of the Apocalypse, "the Man of Sin sitting in the temple of God, exalting itself above all that is called God." This idol, taking the name of Christ as its designation, assuming the cross as its symbol, and boasting of an apostle as its first pope; enriched by wealth; venerable for antiquity; dignified by learning; decorated by sculpture, architecture, and painting; and adding the abysmal policies, and most serpentine craft to all these other dangerous qualities has fascinated countless millions! And, notwithstanding the monstrous absurdity of its doctrines, the blood-stained page of its history, and its hostility to the liberties of mankind is now putting forth the most arrogant claims, and making the most audacious attempts for the conquest of our country!

These idolaters have chosen their god, and are the determined and devoted worshipers of their Baals! They have hardened their hearts and seared their consciences.  They congratulate themselves upon their having thrown off all the weaknesses and fears of Christianity, and upon their being now enabled to pursue their Hell-ward course unchecked by the restraint of conscience. Duped men, blind, and boasting in their blindness are benumbed in all their moral faculties, and exulting in their stupidity! With every tie cut, which held them to piety and truth, they account it a privilege that they are drifting unobstructed to eternal destruction determined to be lost, and rejoicing that nothing bars their path to the bottomless pit!

[J. A. James]

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1 Kings 18:21 … And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

Ezekiel 14:3 … Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

Ezekiel 20:16 …  Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.❤

Idols

The dearest idol I have known,
 Whatever that idol be,
 Help me to tear it from Your throne,
 And worship only Thee! 

[Author Unknown]

Deuteronomy 5:7 ... Thou shalt have none other gods before me. ❤

Keep Yourself From Idols

Though there is no danger of our bowing down to graven images--to gods that have eyes and see not, ears and hear not none are exempt from the danger of being idolaters in spirit. There are gods many and lords many, in lands of Bibles and gospel privileges as truly as in heathen countries!

Wealth, honor, sports and pleasure are the idols of multitudes.  Gold is as truly worshiped as Baal once was!  Self is as really the idol of many now--as Diana of the Ephesians was anciently.  Then, too, there are "household gods" idols in family life. Affection in the various relationships we sustain, which is proper and lovely in a right degree too often becomes idolatrous.

Christians have need to be warned against idolatry, as well as others. The exhortation, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols!" was addressed to believers.  Remember, my soul, that whatever may lead your highest affection and supreme devotion away from God your Savior would be to you an idol!

Help me, O Lord, to watch and pray against the sin of idolatry in all its forms. Show me more of Your glory and Your grace and ever hold the highest place in my heart!

[Author Unknown]

Exodus 20:3 ... Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

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The God of Contemorary Christianity

The God of contemporary Christianity is only slightly superior to the pagan gods of ancient Greece and Rome if indeed He is not actually inferior to them, in that He is weak and helpless while they at least had some imagined power.

Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry; for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is in itself a monstrous sin and substitutes for the true God, one made after its own likeness. Always this god will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges.

The essence of idolatry, is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.

If we insist upon trying to imagine Him we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts. And an idol of the mind, is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand!

Before a Christian Church goes into a decline, there must first be a corrupting of her Scriptural thoughts of God. She simply gives a wrong answer to the question, "What is God like?" and goes downhill from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind!

The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God, until it is once more worthy of Him and of her!

[A. W. Tozer]

Psalm 50:21 ... These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

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A Tragic Repetition

Oh what earthly-mindedness, what indulging of the flesh, what sinful extravagance are now seen among professing Christians today!

How practical godliness has waned; how the denying of self has disappeared; how covetousness, pleasure and worldliness now possess the great majority of those calling themselves the people of God.

Yet as great as the sin of the people is far greater is that of most of the preachers, who, instead of warning, admonishing, rebuking, and setting before their people an example of sobriety and contentment criminally remain silent upon the crying sins of their hearers, while they themselves encourage the reckless indulgence of worldly lusts.

[A. W. Pink]

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Hosea 8:4  ... They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.

Galatians 5:19-21 ... Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Matthew 6:24 ... No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.❤

The Sin of Idolatry

There is much danger lest I should fall into the same sin of idolatry.  Idolatry is as prevalent today as well as yesterday.  It is as prevalent in Christendom, no less than in heathendom.

There are the idols of wood and stone. Lurking in my heart I find too strong a sympathy with the grosser forms of evil; untold possibilities of heinous sin are within me still. But these impure gods must go!

There are the idols of silver and gold. I pay an undue deference to fashion and wealth. I covet a high position and a place among the prominent ones of the earth. But these gods too must be dethroned!

There are the carved images. I may easily be beguiled by my regard for the culture and arts of the world. Contagion and poison haunt its literature, its arts, its amusement. At whatever cost, these deities must be cast out!

There are the molten images. Sudden fires of appetite, swift flames of temptation, leap up within me; and before I know, I may be overcome by them. These powers of darkness must be conquered in a heavenlier strength than my own!

There are the teraphim, the idols made in the likeness of men. I am in peril of exalting friends, wife, children, to the seat which Jesus Christ alone should occupy. My dearest idol must be thrown down, and He must be Lord of all.

May Zinzendorf s motto be mine: "I have one passion, and it is Jesus, Jesus only!"

[Alexander Smellie]

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2 Kings 17:12 ... For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.

Ezekiel 14:4 ...  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

Ezekiel 20:16 ...  Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.


1 Corinthians 10:14 ...  Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.❤

Some Beloved Idol?

Have we not all in our various ways, set up some beloved idol;   something which engaged our affections,   something which occupied our thoughts,   something to which we devoted all the energies of our minds,   something for which we were willing to labor night and day?

Be it money, be it power, be it esteem of men, be it respectability, be it worldly comfort, be it literary knowledge, there was a secret setting up of SELF in one or more of its various forms, and a bowing down to it as an idol.

The man of business makes money his god.

The man of pleasure makes the lust of the flesh his god.

The proud man makes his adored SELF his god.

The Pharisee makes self-righteousness his god.

The Arminian makes free-will his god.

The Calvinist makes dry doctrine his god.

All in one way or other, however they may differ in the object of their idolatrous worship, agree in this: that they give a preference in their esteem and affection to their peculiar idol, above the one true God.


"And the idols he shall utterly abolish" (Isaiah 2:18.) There is, then, a time to break down these idols which our fallen nature has set up.

 

[J. C. Philpot]

 

 

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Exodus 20:3-4 ... Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

 

 

Psalm 115:4-8 ... Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.  They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:  They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

 

 

Luke 16:13 ... No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. ❤